People are often afraid to make mistakes or fail. But no failure means never learning and growing as a person or a professional. In this interview, I talked with Ashley Zagst who is a professional dancer/choreographer turned digital marketer.

Our conversation focused on how Ashley made the career transition from dancer to marketer and what she’s learned along the way about learning from mistakes. She is the former Head of Marketing at Bravado.co, the first digital community exclusively for sales professionals committed to elevating the profession by changing the stigmatized perception.

Key takeaways from the interview:

Everyone has transferable skills! No matter who you are or what you have done in your life, the skills you’ve developed along the way are NOT lost as you move to new phases in your life and career.

Why Ashley decided to transition from a professional career as a dancer and business owner to a digital marketing career in Corporate America. Find out what that transition was like for Ashley and how she achieved her goals.

How Ashley knew she could make the leap from performing arts to working for a tech start-up even though at first glance it might seem an unusual career choice.

When making a career transition, steps you can take to get to the root of your strengths and skill sets.

Why following this “discovery” process can be even more important for women looking to transition in their careers?

Why becoming comfortable with making mistakes and failing big is actually a benefit to our careers.

How feedback delivered in the right way leads to cultivating creativity, not stifling it.

Finally, learn about the connection between creating art(movement) → creating content → serving customers/members → building/being a part of a community → changing an entire profession!

Ashley Zagst is a professional dancer/choreographer turned digital marketer. She is currently the Founder of Zagst Consutling and the former Head of Marketing at Bravado.co, the first digital community exclusively for sales professionals committed to elevating the profession by changing the stigmatized perception. Prior to working at Bravado, Ashley helped build the brand marketing team at Digital Trends. In between working, dancing, traveling, and spending time with her pup, she also finds time to crush the occasional triathlon.

Your employees are your company “brand ambassadors”, as such they are your organization’s greatest asset. Too often companies forget that employees drive the customer experience – either positively or negatively – and that impacts revenue in the same way.

In this interview, I was joined by Hilda Kwa a Regional Director at VMware. Hilda is responsible for growing the End User Computing business in the Northeast. By focusing on the “end user” she works with companies to optimize employee experiences through intelligent technology solutions.

As Hilda and I talked about how companies attract and retain employees and how that translates to growing revenue, we will also discussed how to adapt to a workforce that is constantly transitioning and transforming.

Topics we covered include:

How the workforce has changed throughout Hilda’s career.

The current expectations of today’s workforce – on the employee and employer side.

The challenges facing organizations to attract and retain talent.

How organizations can address these challenges. Onboarding tips, leadership strategies and more.

Watch this video to see how VMware delivers great employee experiences for customers.

Listen and enjoy the interview with Hilda!

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Hilda Kwa is a Regional Director at VMware. Hilda is responsible for growing the End User Computing business in the Northeast. By focusing on the “end user” she works with companies to optimize employee experiences through intelligent technology solutions. Hilda has been leading teams for over 20 years and has worked at major corporations such as Microsoft, Gartner and Avaya and supported global companies such as GE and Citigroup. She is a wife and mother of three, ages 12 to 21, and resides in Connecticut.

Julie Hansen was my guest in this interview. She is a sales presentation expert and the founder of Performance Sales and Training, helping sales professionals communicate with greater confidence, clarity, and influence.

I’ve done a women’s program at a number of corporations called The 5 Behaviors of Sales Sabotage and What You Can Do About It. Women, more than they may realize, often sabotage their own efforts with unconscious behaviors that hurt them more than help them.

Executive presence is a key requirement for success inside and outside your company, and if you are in a sales role, presence and the ability to “influence” conversations has never been more critical to achieving revenue goals.

In talking with Julie, we covered the following topics:

How Julie defines executive presence.

Why women in sales must invest the time to develop their executive presence.

Whether or not, executive presence is assumed to be a natural strength in men versus women.

How women can maintain their own style and personality but also be savvy to times when adapting leads to greater success.

The things that can undermine credibility for women in the workplace.

Strategies to consider when speaking up in meetings matters or when women feel they are not being heard.

Finally, we talked a few specific things that women can do – besides investing in one of Julie’s Programs – to improve their presence now.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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I talked with Mary Grothe, Sales BQ CEO & Founder to better understand how behavioral intelligence plays into the success of salespeople and the sales managers leading their teams. As a top performing individual sales contributor herself before starting her own business, Mary knows a thing or two about over achieving sales quota.

We start by talking about what BQ – Behavioral Intelligence is and how a keen understanding of BQ impacts sales success.

As beneficial as understanding BQ can be, there are circumstances where BQ has a negative effect on sellers. Learn what those things are when you listen to the interview.

Mary talks us through how to identify and remove barriers that lower a sales team’s BQ overall.

Next, we tackled the topic of motivation. Lots of opinions about what that means and whether or not sales leaders can motivate their team members. Mary shares her thoughts on how to motivate a sales team to perform at higher level.

Finally, we closed by talking about how once a once a culture of high BQ is created, the ways in which you maintain it.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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Mary Grothe, CEO and Founder of Sales BQ. She is a former #1 rep in the MidMarket B2B SaaS Payroll / HR industry. After 8 years and millions in revenue sold, she founded Sales BQ, and leads a team of fractional VPs of Sales across the country as they rebuild their clients’ sales departments, all while focusing on the behavioral quotient.

Kate Bradley Chernis is the Founder & CEO of Lately, which uses Artificial Intelligence to automatically turn blogs, videos and podcasts into dozens of amazing social posts, which is then syndicated across unlimited channels. Lately customers use the platform for personal branding communications, brand marketing management, executive thought leadership, employee advocacy and social selling.

Kate knows a thing or two about marketing and brand building. Prior to founding Lately, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise.

I’m often asked what it is like to be a business owner. Many people tired of corporate life think owning their own business is the key that opens the door to nirvana. The perfect life.

While running your own show has MANY benefits, there are downsides too. Things completely out of your control. Challenges are part of the package, so if you are severely risk averse or afraid of selling, working for yourself is NOT the best choice for you. In no way do I want to discourage you from pursuing a dream to own your business, but I do want you to go into the endeavor with your eyes wide open!

Want to be a biz owner? Go for it. I wouldn’t change my path in any way. Doubtful that Kate would either. Kate shares her rather incredible and serendipitous journey to success with her newest company Lately that is quite inspiring. My biggest takeaway…pay attention. Opportunity for the next big thing in your life could be staring you right in the face!

Here are the topics I covered with Kate in the interview.

How she went from radio to becoming a tech startup CEO.

How Lately came to life.

Kate’s advice for female entrepreneurs.

Why “checkout” is the absolute worst phrase you can possibly use in marketing and sales messaging. Yes. Really!

How radio influences the way that Kate and Lately market their business.

The importance of human touch and connection in sales and marketing and why H2H wins against over reliance on automation every time.

Being a rock and roller myself, I had to know if during her radio years, Kate ever had the opportunity to meet any famous rock stars. Indeed she did. She met Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones along with other band members, including Mick Jagger himself. The story is quite amazing! And funny.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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Kate Bradley Chernis is the Founder & CEO of Lately, which uses Artificial Intelligence to automatically turn blogs, videos and podcasts into dozens of amazing social posts. Lately then automatically syndicates that content across unlimited channel, franchisee, location or stakeholder accounts. Customers small, medium and large span a horizontal market across multiple industries, using Lately for personal branding communications, brand marketing management, executive thought leadership, employee advocacy and social selling.

As a former marketing agency owner, Kate initially created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for then-client, Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years.

Prior to founding Lately, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise.

My interview with Marietta focuses on authenticity – being who we really are in all walks of life.

For many women, including me, shedding the mask to be our authentic selves, especially in business, isn’t always easy. Women more than men are taught from an early age to “fit in”. Be nice, include everyone, don’t get too big for your britches.

For those of us who wanted corporate careers for ourselves, we were signaled subliminally or told directly, that to succeed in a man’s world we had to be like the men. That meant dressing like them too! As you’ll hear in Marietta’s interview, in her first stint at IBM early in her career, she wore ladies Brooks Brothers suits, white shirts and wing tips like the guys.

Authenticity is a word thrown around a lot but what does it really mean. There are varying definitions like something proven to be real or legitimate but I like this definition best.

Authenticity is about presence, living in the moment with conviction and confidence and staying true to yourself. An authentic person puts the people around them at ease, like a comforting, old friend who welcomes us in and makes us feel at home.

Being who we are and standing strong in our personal power is tough when faced with pressure to conform. Yet, living and leading authentically, as Marietta does, naturally draws people to you. Authenticity isn’t something you can fake, though many people do try. We can feel it when people are being true to themselves because they exude self-confidence, passion and trustworthiness. As a leader, bringing your whole self to work, inspires your team to follow your lead.

During the interview with Marietta we…

Talked about her passion for non-profits such as the Posse Foundation and why it is important to her to give back to her community.

Her career progression working in high impact roles in major technology companies and what her role at IBM entails.

What Marietta means by authenticity and why it is important, especially as an executive leading teams.

Talked about the “authentic Marietta”. We also talked about whether or not we can learn to “let go” and be our authentic selves if we choose too.

Finally, we wrapped up talking about when Marietta might have tried to lead as someone other than her “real self”, and what happened as a result. Her answer might surprise you!

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History month all throughout March, be inspired by women all throughout history who had the courage to live authentically and change our world for the better!

Listen and enjoy the interview!

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My guest today is Marietta Davis, VP
North America Communications and CSI, IBM Global Markets. Marietta is a seasoned sales executive with an
extensive career in the technology industry holding high impact positions at
IBM, Lotus Development, Ameritech, and Tata Consulting. I first met Marietta in
her role as Vice President of U.S. Dynamics at Microsoft Corporation. The
highest ranking African American in North America, Canada and Latin America,
Davis led an organization of more than 400 sales, marketing and technical
experts serving Microsoft’s business customers with Dynamics ERP and CRM
Solutions. While at Microsoft, Davis successfully managed and grew multiple
businesses to $1B and triple digit growth milestones. Her diverse leadership
portfolio extends to mentoring strong leaders into key roles and acting in an
advisory capacity to incubation and small startups.

Marietta gives back in a number of ways
and currently sits on the National Board of Youth Villages, a private nonprofit
organization dedicated to helping emotionally and behaviorally troubled children
and their families. Recently inducted into the Spelman College “Game Changer”
Hall of Fame for her work in 2015, Marietta is also a sought after speaker on
leadership topics and is a published author, writing for the Huffington Post
and Thrive Global.

It seems pointless to predict what could happen when what has happened isn’t even being addressed.

It’s a New Year and things are bound to be different, right?

I’d like to think so. Could 2020 be that year?

If you follow numerology at all, you know that 2020 represents a year of insight, perfect vision and accomplishment. It is the number for “work” and about getting things done. The right things.

I wonder what would happen if more companies challenged themselves to set the intention to THINK different, SELL different and BE different leveraging 20/20 vision and insight to make that happen.

Intentions versus goals. Is it one or the other or both?

Goals are meant to help us reach an objective within a finite period. Basically, it is about establishing clear tactics and setting deadlines to get what we want.

With intentions, we have a plan we intend to carry out, but those intentions may or may not be linked to a specific deadline. I view intentions as being a bigger vision of something we want but setting arbitrary deadlines may not make sense. At least not at first.

Setting goals sounds like the smarter way to go.

We’ve been trained to believe that the only way to reach our goals is to set deadlines. SMART goals. Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time stamped goals. Goal achievement experts proclaim that without setting actionable goals you don’t fulfill your true potential, which to me, is a lie we should not believe.

More will be revealed, and timing is everything.

The difficulty I’ve always had with traditional approaches to goal setting is that I don’t know what I don’t know.

In sales, goal setting is easier in the sense that you are assigned a quota for the month, quarter and year. That’s your goal. Following a consistent sales process backed up with the right activities, you can work backwards to lay out the steps needed to achieve your objective. You don’t have to guess at the right activities, there is enough research and proof to know what they are.

On the other hand, you may have a goal to become a sales manager. You could set your achievement deadline to be December 31, 2020. But I would argue that there are many factors that will impact your ability to achieve that goal or not. You could lay out all the steps, execute them well, and still not achieve the goal by the deadline you set.

That’s the big problem I have with traditional goal setting. It feels like a forced process, as if we can control circumstances often far beyond our control.

There is nothing wrong with thinking big, striving for the best version of ourselves or dreaming of big rewards to keep us motivated.

When I think about intentions and whether or not I should focus my energies on this or that, I have to know in my heart that it feels right, and I want it. I may have no idea how it will all come together but I have faith that more will be revealed. That the people and the resources I need to make my intentions come alive will show up at the right time.

A personal example to prove my point.

In 2009, I created a list of publications who I wanted to publish an article of mine. I had no idea if this intention would come to pass. At the time I was a less confident writer even after being signed to have my book published the following year!

Anyway, one of those publications was the Harvard Business Review. I could have taken my list and created “goals” to make my desire a reality. My book on Social Selling was published in 2010, so logically, that might have been the year to push to get at least one of those publications to publish me. But what if the timing was all wrong, or I didn’t have the skills required just yet? And, if I didn’t achieve my objective in the time frame I’d committed too, would that motivate me to adjust and carry on or simply cause me to give up? Hard to say.

What did happen is that in February 2012, one of the editors at the Harvard Business Review contacted me (email and Twitter!) to ask me to write an article about Social Selling for their July 2012 magazine. They had decided to devote an entire issue to the topic of sales evolution. As a result of them following me on social media and hearing me on webinars, they had decided to invite me to write for them. They felt I had a unique perspective to add to their magazine focus. No PR agent created that opportunity for me. Had I set the goal to make this happen in 2010, it probably wouldn’t have. It was clear that buyer behavior was changing and that social was impacting selling but it took another two years before these new ideas began gaining traction.

I set the intention. It had no deadline. I certainly took action to walk my talk and demonstrate how I used social in my own business and taught clients to do the same. The visibility I created for myself ultimately paid off but I didn’t try to force the achievement of a goal.

To some of you reading this post, you’ll be thinking – that’s airy fairy, new age nonsense. For me, it works. It feels more authentic, and I have accomplished quite a lot in my lifetime approaching things this way. I simply don’t try to force things into existence merely to prove I can set goals and achieve them.

I take a combination approach and set goals and intentions.

For example, my #1 intention is to change the prevailing sales mindset about a salesperson’s role in the buying process. We are (or should be) problem solvers and value creators. Not product pitching demo dollies.

To turn that intention into a goal, how would I measure the real impact of my work and message? It doesn’t make sense to me to say I will make this happen by July 2021. How would I know? What would be the measure I would use to judge my success? Is it the number of people I coach who shift their approach and book more meetings? Could be. But what about the people who may hear my rantings for another 2-years before they decide to change? Does that mean I failed if it happened after my self imposed deadline?

My second major intention is to impact and increase the percentage of women who assume sales management and leadership roles in their companies. How do I put a number to that? Is there really an end date I could use to say that I made it? Perhaps the goal is to choose 1-2 key projects that I feel might move the needle in terms of awareness and change. But what activity is the right activity? Is it the number of blog posts I write, number of times I’m interviewed about the topic, is it the number of people who listen to my Conversations with Women in Sales podcast, or the number of consulting gigs I’m hired to do that confirm I’ve successfully achieved my goal?

You get the point.

Here in the United States, we’ve been conditioned to believe that we cannot get anywhere in life unless we set goals, as if we could have insight into all the steps it will take to reach them or the obstacles that might derail us.

I’m not saying don’t plan for your success. What I am saying is consider how to identify an approach that works best for you to live your best, most fulfilling life year to year. The approach is not going to be the same for everyone. If you don’t have specific goals figured out yet, you aren’t doomed to fail. It means you are human.

If, like me, you find the traditional approach to goal setting a challenge, ease up on yourself and try setting 3-5 specific intentions instead. Then give yourself permission to let more be revealed about when/how you can make your intentions more concrete in the 30-days after you set them. I’ve found that the answers I need start to show up pretty quickly once I set my intentions and read them aloud every night before bed and each morning as I kick off my day.

We enter a New Year in less than 15 hours. In whatever way you decide to approach the New Year and the new decade, my intention for you is that you love and live your life to the fullest!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas is a popular phrase adapted from Las Vegas’ tourism slogan meant to mean that no matter what you said or did in Las Vegas, your unbridled freedom of expression wouldn’t come back to haunt you.

Ah, if only that were true on the internet, in social networks, online communities and public forums. One would think examples of epic lapses in judgment made by individuals – think Roseanne Barr, or companies – SnapChat’s completely inappropriate “would you rather” ad about Rihanna – would serve as strong reminders that what you say online can burn your reputation so fast you might not know what hit you.

Sometimes it is better to back away from the keyboard.

I’ve seen nasty, snarky comments and arguments taking place
on LinkedIn, which for the unenlightened is supposed to be a business network
of professionals who are there for the purpose of doing business. I can’t
figure out if the people who do this sort of thing are simply ignorant to the perception
this creates about their character or if they’ve deluded themselves thinking
that any publicity is good publicity.

Actions have consequences.

When we feel under attack or judged unfairly it can be easy to react without thinking through the consequences of what we are doing. That monkey mind reaction may intensify if someone has bashed you or your company online. The justification to defend becomes strong. This is exactly when you should take a breath and back away from the keyboard. A mindless response to justify your position or to prove you are right can easily backfire on a much larger scale when it is done online.

Reputation matters.

Before the rise of the internet, if you found out that misinformation
about you or your company was making the rounds in business circles, you’d go to
the source to work it out. Advice worth considering as your first option today.

If you choose to get in a pissing contest with someone online,
you’d do well to consider the risks, especially if you are in a sales role.

If you think how you conduct yourself in online conversations won’t factor into a decision to buy your product or not, think again. What you share, say and do matters. Buyers do check us out.

Don’t assume that because an online community is small that your behavior won’t be noticed. People are watching.

Even if you are in the right, going overboard to prove your point makes you look like a jerk who can’t keep their ego in check.

I saw a public example of how these 3 points played out between two rival software companies earlier this year.

It started with a sales manager at one company sharing a meme they’d created to poke “fun” at their competitor. It did not go well for good reason. Reps following in the footsteps of their leader started sharing the offending post with their social connections and followers. As tends to happen in social networks, a smack down began with people showing up to chastise the company and the sales reps for what they were doing. The sales leader apologized.

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t.

It didn’t take long for the situation to escalate when an offended manager at the rival company decided to air his grievance about the competitor’s joke. Aside from the fact that the better decision was to say nothing at all, the sales reps who work for this same company were guilty of talking smack about the very competitor being complained about. People didn’t hesitate to call out their hypocrisy publicly.

Think first. Your brand will thank you!

Whether it is bashing a competitor or feeling justified in
defending yourself when you feel wronged, everything you say and do remains
attached to your digital footprint. Deleted tweets and social posts almost
never disappear. You’d do well to remember that what happens in Vegas stays in
Vegas, EXCEPT when it is on the internet.

As sales teams mount their final push to finish 2019 strong, someone in a sales enablement, marketing or sales support role is planning what has become status quo in sales. The annual sales kick off (SKO) meeting.

As the term implies, a sales kick-off meeting is meant to be a sales reset. An opportunity to review what worked and what didn’t in the prior year while also creating the positive momentum needed to achieve sales goals for the year ahead.

But let’s get real. Most SKO’s are a complete waste of time and money.

Throughout my sales career, I’ve attended plenty of these meetings and usually left them feeling ticked off that 3-5 days of my selling time was wasted, and I was away from my family to boot.

Though the “goal” is to set the stage for sales success, SKO agendas are dominated with things that do not help salespeople be better at the craft of selling. That includes new product announcements, product feature training, product demos, reviews of marketing materials, or execs who feel their title justifies air time with the sales force when it doesn’t.

Use your SKO time to train your sellers how to be better at selling; otherwise scrap the meeting.

SKO’s are expensive! Studies suggest that the average per head cost is between $1,500-$3,000. Conservatively, it can cost $75,000+ for a 50-person sales team to attend your SKO plus the cost of other people in your company who attend too. That doesn’t even account for event planning costs, or the lost opportunity cost due to non-selling time while salespeople attend the event.

Companies are literally burning cash on SKO activities that do not advance sales performance.

Given the expense of these meetings, it is a huge miss to waste time on anything that does not directly impact a salesperson’s ability to sell more effectively to today’s modern buyer. As Salesforce reported in the 3rd annual State of Sales research, “winning deals still requires human to human interaction.”

And, it isn’t just any human interaction that will get the job done. It must be the right interaction that happens at the right time and in the right way.

The surprising thing is that this is NOT a new revelation. What is surprising is how many companies remain mired in their own status quo, and as a result, they fail to adapt and act on what B2B buyers keep making clear. The salespeople they will give their time and attention to are the rare ones who demonstrate that they operate differently from other salespeople.

Nowhere on this list does it say that buyers want sellers coming at them with generic, product feature driven sales pitches. They certainly don’t care if you redesigned your marketing materials.

Buyers do say they have higher standards for salespeople, can take their business anywhere, expect vendors to personalize their approach, and that they will work with sellers who act as trusted advisors.

Use your SKO as an opportunity to train salespeople to be what buyers want them to be!

If buyers want to work with salespeople who are trusted advisors, what does that mean?

Trusted advisor defines the salesperson who has exceptional, targeted knowledge about specific business problems that decision makers in certain roles and industries face. These salespeople solve problems and put the needs of the buyer FIRST. Sales reps don’t become trusted advisors without help and that means training.

With that in mind, how is your SKO agenda training your salespeople to:

Engage rather than repel buyer interest with sales messaging and approach?

Planning beyond the event. Your plan must include what happens prior to the SKO, during the event, and how the training you deliver will be adopted and acted upon after the event.

Clearly define the behavior you want to change. Be specific. After the SKO we want our sales reps to demonstrate competency in the 3 key traits of a trusted advisor. Then go deeper. What specifically does or will hinder our ability to evolve our salespeople into trusted advisors? Lack of training? The activity KPI’s we set today, which incent the wrong behavior? Are there internal systems, processes or even management biases getting in the way of the objective too?

Plan pre-work prior to your kick-off event. Brainshark’s research found that “more than six out of 10 organizations (62%) don’t deliver pre-work to sales representatives in advance of their SKO, and 84% don’t conduct training in advance – neglecting to provide a foundation on the skills and topics that will be covered.”

Create and block plenty of time for role plays at the event. Sports teams don’t show up on the field once a week expecting to win the game. They run plays and practice possible game day scenarios every day. Sales teams should operate the same way. Practice improves skills, turns them into ingrained habits and builds confidence.

Reinforce. Your SKO sales training establishes the foundation for better sales results, and behavior will not change after one training. For salespeople to embrace and act-on the new skills they’ve just learned, coaching and management reinforcement must happen consistently after the event concludes.

Conduct
your SKO with the right “end in mind” or don’t bother to do it all.

A sales kick-off meeting has huge potential if done in the right way.

The end goal should be that salespeople leave the event having improved their selling skills. The skills that decision makers expect of them. The skills that position your sellers to achieve their quota and deal profitability objectives in year ahead.

Everything else is a waste of money and time that can be better spent elsewhere!

By now, if you’ve read some of my work, listened to any of my interviews, you know that I believe that learners are earners. People often tell me that they have a desire to keep on top of their own learning but then complain that they just do not have the time.

We all have the same 24-hours in a day.

That is not meant to be flippant or sound like I lack empathy for others who may have more and different obligations than I do. I simply believe that when any of us choose to focus on what we believe to be important; we will make time for it.

Why make learning a priority?

As 21st century humans, we live in a world moving
at speeds faster than our predecessors could have imagined. The rapid pace of
change is dizzying, and all signs indicate that won’t be stopping any time
soon.

To remain relevant as people and business professionals, our
learning mindset must always be on. Whether it is through reading (I’m a
junkie), podcasts, webinars or watching video clips, or any combination that
works for you, there are so many ways to learn on the fly that you have no
excuse not to.

Even 10-minutes a day learning something new will translate into 3,650 minutes of learning or 60.83333 hours of new learning each year!

You seriously cannot invest 10-minutes a day?

Harvey McKay wrote a book called Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty and while many books written about networking have been published since Harvey’s, what I liked about Harvey’s book is that he says DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU NEED YOUR NETWORK to build it. Many an employee surprised by the news that their job was eliminated have discovered the hard way how painful it is when they don’t have a network to fall back on.

Networking and learning the 21st century way.

Online networking and relationship building using platforms
like LinkedIn has never been easier. Yet, even today, I’m surprised at the
number of people who barely keep their profile up to date, much less dig that well
before they need it.

Aside from the networking and relationship building,
LinkedIn has also become quite a learning resource. You can learn from others
through their articles and posts or follow hashtags (#) that feature topics of
interest most relevant to you.

The point is that you must keep up.

What you know today is important. What you know about what’s coming or could be coming is how you maintain relevance when others are left behind.

As David says, “Plenty of experts argue that anyone who
wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start
early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as
possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a
head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional
athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception,
not the rule.”

He makes the strong case that range of knowledge and skill is
of high value. Being educated in many different areas I have found to be of
great importance as a sales professional. The more diverse our education and
skills, the easier it is to connect with people on so many different and
diverse levels.

I’ll continue to promote my belief that learners are earners. A few times each month, watch for posts that promote books, podcasts, articles or videos I recommend.